I use priority for almost anything east of the Mississippi. Longer than that, I suggest express, mainly because it comes with tracking, which priority does not offer. I always use delivery confirmation.

In five years of going exclusive with the USPS, I have lost I think 2 queens. (One dead and one lost package) My local UPS store refuses to mail.

All my queens are pulled within 24 hours of shipping. Most are pulled the morning they are mailed. I've gotten queens from others that have been banked and they die very quickly and I always have a few dead. So I think much of mailing success is dictated on the business practices also.

Priority normally is a two day delievery within a couple states of me. Sometimes it has taken a third day. That is also why we do not ship on Thurday, Friday, or Saturday. I try to mail all of them on Monday or Tuesday. This ensures they will not be sitting in a postal center over the weekend. I graft and schedule my queen pulls on a calendar based on shipping orders.

Much of USPS problems or success is also determined how close you are to a main postal terminal hub. I mail from Lewisberry anytime before 4 pm, and they will be trucked to Harrisburg at 4. They then will leave by plane from Harrisburg at 7pm to the next postal hub. Then out from there by truck, or another flight, etc. If I pull in the morning, mail in the afternoon, then they leave that night's flight, they are normally at the customers nearest postal hub within 24 hours.

I have had some problems with isolated places, like Alachua County Virginia. Twice, mailings took a week to get delivered. And twice all my bees arrived safe, alive, and were reported to be doing great. Why it takes that long I have no clue.

had queens sent both express and priority this year priority and express took the same amount of time similar distances ( tx ,la) and queen sent from ohio took the same time shipments were tuesday and arrival on saturday / ohio shipment monday came fridayexpress just costs alot more and usps tracking is really bad on either method just make sure package marked live queen bees and carriers do a good job one wasn't and carrier had no idea tx shipment priority , la express , oh shipment priority

since my market is pretty darn local I use the 'if it fits, it ships' boxes which cost about $5. you can obtain a tracking number for an extra $.75.. which I usually do.

the one time I tried this method to ship across the state line to Louisiana the queens arrived dead. this may have been more highly related to a poor batch of queen cage candy but the time between sending and receiving also doubled.

Logged

I am 'the panther that passes in the night'... tecumseh.

rrussell6870

Priority is basically "3day" shipping for anywhere in the US... time of year for both "from" and "to" should be considered... Never have any troubles with priority mail, but for iffy temps we use UPS overnight air. UPS does not offer insurance, and they are certainly not the most gentle, but they are fast, and in situations like that... the quicker they get out of the shippers hands and into the bee keepers hands, the better. Keep in mind though that UPS is MUCH more expensive...